This weekend, a Palestinian armed with a machine gun opened fire at soldiers on a Jordan Valley checkpoint. The soldiers returned fire, and the Palestinian died. An unfortunately all-too familiar story. Most people will only know the basic info of what happened by skimming the headlines in their local paper or social media feed. That’s why…

Today’s Top Stories 1. An Egyptian court designated Hamas a terror organization. If I understand YNet correctly, yesterday’s ruling was a wider designation making no distinction between the terror group’s military and political “wings.” The decision was reached for Hamas role in terror attacks on Egyptian soil. While the January decision against> Hamas targeted only…

Today’s Top Stories 1. Palestinian-Jordanian journalist Mudar Zahran discussed the Gaza war with regular Palestinians. Everyone was fearful of Hamas and spoke anonymously about the extent the general population was used as a human shield. The whole story’s worth reading; this snippet in particular caught my eye: One, a renowned Gazan academic, who spoke on…

If ever there was an example of how the word “militant” has become a meaningless catch-all term in the media, it’s this story from AFP: Several dozen radical Jews gathered on Monday at the Jerusalem site known as the Cenacle to protest against Christian pilgrims praying there for Pentecost, a police spokesman said… An AFP…

Israel’s usually accused of pressuring its Arab-Christian community, making Christian life untenable in the West Bank, and even ruining Christmas. But now that Israel’s reaching out to its Arab Christians, you’d think the Jewish state would catch a break. Christians make up about two percent of Israel’s population. And there’s a lot more to this new engagement that…

A sampling of the latest from my inbox. 1. Are some newspapers beyond the pale? From: …@sympatico.ca Date: Wed, Mar 19, 2014 Subject: Re: IDNS: What Does Unearthed Arafat Video Mean for Peace Talks? Why are you quoting articles from the cult of the Christian science monitor? thank you for attention to this matter. I cite…